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coachella: temporary tent structure

I get the phone call from juan azulay around midnight on a sunday to come help out for a few days with some kind of temporary tent structure for the coachella festival. i didn't know what to expect at all, and was only told that lodging and accomodations would be provided and people who helped out would be allowed to go watch the shows in 'measured' amounts. that was reason enough for me, so my roomate and i hopped in the car to make the 2 hour trip from LA to Palm Springs. we get there to find that 'lodging and accomodations' meant sleeping in the car parked next to a line of porto-potties...awesome!

working on the structure was a bit of challenge due to the sweltering heat and limited resources, compounded by the fact that none of us knew what the hell we were doing...but we did get some help and assurance from a crane operator named 'nascar' while roadies would continually pass by with encouraging words such as "dude, that's awesome! when do we get to burn it down?"

although it was tough, we pulled it off and everyday at dusk the heat would give way to some gentle breezes, making the night air just about perfect...a truly unforgettable week.

thanks. yeah, rage against the machine was off the hook, and im really happy manu chao played 'bienvenida a tijuana'. bjork was mesmorizing and the best band that i never heard before was explosions in the sky.

The structure is made of 16 telephone poles (they weigh about 550 Lbs. each), 2,000 yards of Hollow Braided 500 Lbs. test Spectra Line (used for parachutes and big fish trolling) and 40 fire rated 6’x15’ Shade Cloth panels (used to cast shade on agricultural fields). The foundations were temporary (no digging) – accomplished through a weighed-base system of 4x10’s, lag bolts and through bolts. The structural net spanned 70’ and was double-lined, 6’ deep from high-to-low points and using two ‘tension rings’ to distribute loads. Don’t forget that the wind there can get up to 50 mph and the lift that this thing can generate can pick up those poles and toss them up in the air like nothing. All the attachments were climbing knots, with swivels and quick links used in key places.

The structure had a staggered fail-safe system so that in the event of something going poles would not fall on people (60,000 people each day went to Coachella). The thing had a built-in misting system, lighting, and to make it all more difficult all the materials had to be procured from within a 20 mile radius. The budget was 12K, it took about 9 people (staged) 5 days to build and we used a Grade-all, a forklift, a boom, some ladders and some tools.

After Coachella '99 i had the pipe dream of a wind funnel tent structure with misters; Something breezy and misty for the sweaty kids. That said, congrats Azulay and labor force. I'm curious about the function: is it a chill out area, beer garden, staging area, vendor's nest? What condition was it in at the end of the weekend? Did users gravitate towards the center structural poles like an obelisk, or did they tend to circle away towards the periphery it like a donut? Part of me hopes you guys were too busy catching the RATM reunion to notice.